Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Director:

Sydney Pollack

Writers:

James Grady (novel)
Lorenzo Semple Jr. (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

14 November 1975 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

His CIA code name is Condor. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him.

Plot:

A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Book | Kill | Key | Bird In Title

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Robert Redford	...	Joseph Turner / The Condor
Faye Dunaway	...	Kathy Hale
Cliff Robertson	...	J. Higgins
Max von Sydow	...	G. Joubert (as Max Von Sydow)
John Houseman	...	Mr. Wabash
Addison Powell	...	Leonard Atwood
Walter McGinn	...	Sam Barber
Tina Chen	...	Janice Chon
Michael Kane	...	S.W. Wicks
Don McHenry	...	Dr. Ferdinand Lappe
Michael B. Miller	...	Fowler (as Michael Miller)
Jess Osuna	...	The Major
Dino Narizzano	...	Harold
Helen Stenborg	...	Mrs. Edwina Russell (as Helen Stenbure)
Patrick Gorman	...	Martin
Hansford Rowe	...	Jennings (also as Hansford Rolle) (as Hansford H. Rowe Jr.)
Carlin Glynn	...	Mae Barber (as Carlin Gylnn)
Hank Garrett	...	Mailman
Arthur French	...	Messenger
Jay Devlin	...	Tall Thin Man
Frank Savino	...	Jimmy
Robert Phalen	...	Newberry
John Randolph Jones	...	Beefy Man
Garrison Phillips	...	Hutton
Lee Steele	...	Heidegger
Ed Crowley	...	Ordinance Man
John Connell	...	TV Reporter
Norman Bush	...	Alice Lieutenant
James Keane	...	Store Clerk
Ed Setrakian	...	Customer
Myron Natwick	...	Civilian
Michael Prince	...	Civilian
Carol Gustafson	...	Landlady
Sal Schillizzi	...	Locksmith
Harmon William	...	CIA Agent
David Bowman	...	Telephone Worker
Eileen Gordon	...	CIA Receptionist
Robert Dahdah	...	Santa Claus
Steve Bonino	...	Kid
Jennifer Rose	...	Kid
David Allen	...	Kid
Glenn Ferguson	...	Kid
Paul Dwyer	...	Kid
Marian Swan	...	Nurse
Dorothi Fox	...	Nurse
Ernest Harden Jr.	...	Teenager
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Beverly Goodman	...	Girl (uncredited)
Russell Johnson	...	Intelligence Officer at Briefing (uncredited)
Bruce Moreno	...	Computer Operator (uncredited)
Lauren Simon	...	Neighbor in Elevator (uncredited)

Directed by
Sydney Pollack

Writing credits
James Grady		(novel "Six Days of the Condor")
Lorenzo Semple Jr.		(screenplay) and
David Rayfiel		(screenplay)

Produced by
Stanley Schneider	....	producer
Dino De Laurentiis	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Dave Grusin

Cinematography by
Owen Roizman

Film Editing by
Don Guidice

Casting by
Shirley Rich

Production Design by
Stephen B. Grimes		(as Stephen Grimes)

Art Direction by
Gene Rudolf

Set Decoration by
George DeTitta Sr.		(as George DeTitta)

Costume Design by
Joseph G. Aulisi		(as Joseph C. Aulisi)

Makeup Department
Susan Germaine	....	hairdresser: Ms. Dunaway
Lee Harman	....	makeup artist: Ms. Dunaway (as Lee Harmon)
Gary Liddiard	....	makeup artist
Bob O'Bradovich	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Paul Ganapoler	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Michael Haley	....	second assistant director (as Mike Haley)
Kim Kurumada	....	second assistant director
Peter R. Scoppa	....	first assistant director (as Pete Scoppa)
Ralph S. Singleton	....	second assistant director (as Ralph Singleton)

Art Department
Alan Levine	....	property master (as Allan Levine)
Bruno Robotti	....	master scenic

Sound Department
Dennis Maitland	....	production sound
Arthur Piantadosi	....	sound re-recordist
Josef von Stroheim	....	sound editor (as Josef E. Von Stroheim)

Special Effects by
Augie Lohman	....	special effects

Stunts
Dean Smith	....	stunt double (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Enrique Bravo	....	camera operator
Dusty Wallace	....	gaffer
Robert Ward	....	key grip
Holly Bower	....	special photographer (uncredited)
Brian Hamill	....	still photographer: special assignment (uncredited)
Gary Muller	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)
Tom Priestley Jr.	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joseph W. Dehn	....	wardrobe
Bernie Pollack	....	wardrobe
Bernie Pollack	....	costume supervisor (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Fredric Steinkamp	....	supervising editor

Music Department
Ted Whitfield	....	music editor

Other crew
Theoni V. Aldredge	....	clothes: Ms. Dunaway
Michael Britton	....	location coordinator
Dino De Laurentiis	....	presenter
Federico De Laurentiis	....	assistant to producer
Sam Goldrich	....	production accountant
Maggie James	....	script supervisor
Adeline Leonard Seakwood	....	office coordinator (as Adeline Leonard)
Phill Norman	....	title designer
Frans J. Afman	....	financial services (uncredited)
Stephen A. Glanzrock	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Dino De Laurentiis Company
• Paramount Pictures
• Wildwood Enterprises (as A Wildwood Enterprises, Inc. Co-Production)

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1975) (USA) (theatrical) (as Paramount A Gulf + Western Company)
• Hafbo (1976) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1977) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere) (pan/scan)
• Fox Films (1975) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Mainostelevisio (MTV3) (1992) (Finland) (TV) (MTV1)
• Nelonen (1997) (Finland) (TV)
• Paramount Home Video (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Paramount Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Rautakirja (????) (Finland) (VHS)
• Tec Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Finland Oy (2005) (Finland) (DVD)
• Video Classics
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2001) (Finland) (TV) (TV2)

Other Companies

• Creative Film Arts  optical effects

Also Known As:

3 Days of the Condor (Australia)

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:AA (1975) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1976) | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

1 World Trade Center, World Trade Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Dino De Laurentiis Company

Trivia:

When they are reminiscing, Higgins asks Wabash whether he served with "Col. Donovan" during World War II - a reference to William Donovan, founder of the Office of Strategic Services and precursor of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Wabash replies, "I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm" - referring to actor Sterling Hayden, who served with the OSS, running the German blockade of the Adriatic during WWII to get supplies to Yugoslav partisans.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the Condor is getting soaked by rain on his way to lunch, everyone immediately around him has umbrellas. There is a man in the distance to the right of the police officer, obviously oblivious to the rain and walks as if he is beyond the reach of the rain machines.

Quotes:

[after Joubert unexpectedly kills someone]
Joe Turner: Why?
Joubert: I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"; always "how much".

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Heroes Unmasked: The H.R.G. File (#1.8)" (2007)

As effective now as it was then, but only more so.

How many movies about events that were happening at the time that they were released stand the test of time, in this case almost 30 years after the movie was made. "Three Days of the Condor" wasn't a major blockbuster in 1975 and didn't win any Academy Awards the next spring, But if it were remade today it would hold up as good as any film about government secret covert policies and behind the scenes action as any movie about the same subject would now.

The movie "Three Days of the Condor" eerily as well as accurately predicts the very situation that the US has got itself into now,in 2003,in the oil-rich Middle and Near East some twenty eight years ago back in in 1975! Robert Redford, Joe Turner, works for the CIA and is doing his job like he's done it for years. He reads and interprets books, without the slightest suspicion of how he, as well as his co-workers, is looked upon when it comes to the real scheme of things to what his bosses think about what's going on in the world.

Turner takes his employment in the CIA, which is one that he obviously needed to get a very high government clearance, like most working people would;a 9 to 5 job with a months vacation and a good government pension waiting for him when he retires. One day when it, unknowing at the time to Turner, luckily comes his turn get lunch for his co-workers that he finds out that working for an outfit like the CIA is a lot more dangerous then him getting mugged or having his motor bike stolen on his way to work. From then on until the end of the movie and even beyond Turner is a marked man, not marked by the enemies of the US but by his CIA bosses themselves.

"Three Days of the Condor" is a true "Man without a Country" movie when Turner as well as those that he worked with, who were loyal to their country and the agency that employed them, were deemed expendable because of a slight case of paranoia from a top administrator in the agency.

The CIA outfit that Turner was in were checking out a book, that seemed to be some kind of secret blueprint, written in a number of unlikely and foreign languages about a Western-type country plotting to, and taking over, an or a number of oil-rich Middle-East nations! This is exactly what's happening in Iraq today!

I doubt that A movie like "Three Days of the Condor" would be made today given the climate of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the "War on Terrorism" in both Afghanistan & Iraq that quickly followed. But back in 1975 when we here in the USA were living in a more peaceful and secure time and with the Frank Church Commission investigating in public the accesses of the US intelligence agencies it could.

I especially liked the cast of Cliff Robertson, Higgens, Max Von Saydo, Jobert, and Faye Dunaway, Kathy, besides of course Robert Redford's Joe Turner. I liked the contrast between Higgens and Jobert in the fact that Higgens was a career man working for the government and Jobert was a contract killer only working for whoever paid him. Even though Jobert should have been the heavy in the film he was by far more sympathetic because what he did was only a job, and that all it was, to him and his encounter with Turner towards the end of the movie, who's job it was for him to kill, wasn't that threatening and not at all as personal as Turners scenes with Higgens were.

Higgens always came across as a con-man who would shoot you, or have someone shoot you, in the back as soon as you turned around. This contrast goes to show you that a person who hires a killer to kill someone is far more guilty then the one that does the killing himself. Charles Manson didn't kill anyone, he had others do the killing for him, but he's more responsible for those murders back in 1969 then the ones that did the killings themselves.

Faye Dunaway as Kathy was great as the innocent bystander who's life was turned upside down, by all these events that she had no knowledge or control of. She showed fear and outrage at first and then later realizing that Turner was telling the truth and that she ,like him, had no choice in the matter because she "knew too much" but to risk her life, what else could she do. Kathy ended up helping him because helping Turner or not she was also targeted like he was so she might as well do what was right.

I'm surprised that I didn't read or hear anyone talk about, not all these years after "Three Days of the Condor" was released, the fact that a good part of the movie as shot in and around the ill-faded World Trade Center in NYC. In fact I think that "Three Days of the Condor" was the first major motion picture that was filmed there. The WTC was opened to the public in 1974 and the movie was made in late 1974 and early 1975. Even more ironic about the film is that Higgens, who was undoubtedly the villain in it, had his CIA offices located in of all places, you guessed it, the World Trade Center.